Last week, the French Ministry of Health launched a big campaign against passive smoking.
Starting today, it is supposed to be forbidden to smoke in a Paris restaurant or bar. The mayor of Paris, Bernard Delanoë, is behind this initiative, which is not particularly well received and is not an actual law. We'll see what happens. A poll of the Union of Hospitality Industry Workers showed that 72% thought that the legislation currently in use is all that is needed. The legislation currently in use if that every restaurant is required to have a non-smoking section. In most of them, that is in the back near the toilets. If you want to sit near the nice cafe windows, you will certainly be in the smoking section.
Smokers are on the run in France, however. Aside from girls and young women, who all smoke like fiends to keep their figures, everyone is trying to quit or has quit, and the newspapers are constantly pointing out that smoking is "very very badly viewed in New York." The French make fun of the Americans for their anti-smoking obsession, but historically, the trends come from the States and everyone knows it. (The U.S. is like a laboratory for experiments that would never be tried in France; afterwards the French can say, "Well, it worked in California." This goes for everything from loft living to wearing sneakers to internet commerce.) You are much less likely than ten or fifteen years ago to eat your dinner with clouds of smoke blowing in your face, and the restaurant smoker now looks around before starting, knows he is "badly viewed," feels guilty and tends to be very polite.
Comments